Abstract
The scales of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) are famous for specialized surface structures that interact with light to produce color. Such reflective scales occur in a variety of species, and like other scales and bristles of the arthropod cuticle develop from a single epidermal cell (review: citeauthorch10:Ghiradella1994 citeyearch10:Ghiradella1994). An unusual function for scales, namely the production of acoustic signals was reported for male moths of the Uraniidae family (citeauthorch10:Lees1992citeyearch10:Lees1992). The sound emission organs of male U. leilus, U. brasiliensis and U. fulgens are situated on the prothoracic legs and consist of two zones of specialized scales located on opposite sides of the coxa and the femur of each foreleg. On the external side of the coxa, opposite the femur, there is a peg which consists of a bundle of elongated scales that are hooked at the tip.
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Barro, A., Vater, M., Pérez, M., Coro, F. (2009). Surface Structure of Sound Emission Organs in Urania Moths. In: Gorb, S.N. (eds) Functional Surfaces in Biology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6697-9_11
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